Georges Goursat

Georges Goursat, portrayed by Giovanni Boldini

Georges Goursat (born November 22, 1863 in Périgueux , † November 26, 1934 in Paris ) was a French caricaturist. He signed his drawings, which made him a social writer of the Belle Epoque , with the pseudonym "Sem". The caricatures appeared in “albums”, folders with large-format lithographs , with editions of only a few hundred copies, which is why his works are hardly tangible today.

youth

Portrait-batch by Ulrich de Vieil-Castel as an example of an early drawing. Sem quickly gave up the then widespread style with the grotesquely large heads.

Georges Goursat was the third of nine children and the eldest son of André Goursat (1830-1884) and his wife Louise Saint Martin (1836-1906). The father was a wholesaler in groceries , the mother brought a considerable fortune into the marriage. The father seems to have taken part in bringing up the children more than was usual at the time.

Georges spent the years from 1876 to 1880 at a Jesuit boarding school in Sarlat , which he later fondly remembered. Then his father brought him back to Périgueux to finish school at the local Lycée . In 1883 André Goursat transferred his business to his eldest son and a partner, probably because he had heart problems. He died on February 14, 1884. Georges Goursat was never interested in the business, which he soon left to his partner in return for an annuity . Until he could live off his own works, he never had to worry about money because of it.

“Silhouette” of nuns who collect superfluous food in hotels and markets.

In Périgueux he set up a small studio, took drawing lessons from a teacher and initially stayed with his mother. He published his first caricatures in small magazines in his hometown and in an album with "characters". At first he copied the then usual caricature style of portraits-charges , in which a grotesquely large head sits on a small body. He quickly gave up this style, however, and in his mature caricatures the heads are rather small in relation to the body. Another style of drawing that he tried was “silhouettes” that looked like paper cutting. He often signed the caricatures with the pseudonym “Sem”, which he had chosen out of admiration for “ Cham ”, but for many years also with the initials “GG” or his full name.

Years of apprenticeship in the province

In 1889 Sem moved to the center of the region in Bordeaux , where he became a caricaturist for the two newspapers La Petite Gironde and La Gironde . As early as January 1890, he brought out his first album with lithographs showing typical characters from city life. His style became more economical. Already that first album became a local event and sold out quickly. During his time in Bordeaux, Sem made two more albums in which important personalities of the city took up more and more space. In addition, large parts of the Tourny-Noël magazine, which appeared annually at Christmas from 1895, came from him. From Bordeaux he seems to have traveled to London several times and his acquaintance with the Prince of Wales may have been around this time, but little is known from his private life.

Fish women in Marseilles

The reasons for Sem's move to Marseille , where he lived from 1898 to 1900, are also unknown. At a time when numerous painters came to the Midi to paint the landscape, he stuck to his subjects: famous people of the city whom he observed at horse races, in the theater and in salons. His studio was on the top floor of the prefecture. In the short time he published two albums and a Christmas magazine with a total of over 100 portraits. Sometimes he chased his victim like the paparazzi later . Sem's working method was laborious, because he made countless sketches of a figure until he could draw its posture and facial features by heart. The final cartoon was then the quintessence of her personality. Sem had found his ultimate style.

One of the cartoonists felt so offended that he challenged Sem to a duel , which Sem accepted and won. Possibly this duel was the reason to leave Marseille in March 1900; Another reason was the urging of the writer and journalist Jean Lorrain , who noticed Sem's talent, to come to Paris.

Sem conquers Paris

Sem was one of the few French who did not take a stand in the Dreyfus affair , which then polarized the nation. However, his caricature of Baron and Baroness Alphonse de Rothschild on the beach at Trouville can be read as a commentary on how much French Jews were isolated by "the affair".

Le plus grand d'Espagne Alfonso XIII. of Spain and le petit chat Reza Shah at a horse race

In March 1900, shortly before the world exhibition opened, Sem went to Paris. The city's leading caricaturists at the time were Jean-Louis Forain and Abel Faivre , but they found their subjects in politics. Sem spent his time on horse racing and released the album Le Turf after just three months . Practically all of the upscale society - Tout-Paris - as far as they hung around on racetracks, found themselves caricatured here. Sem had financed the printing himself and brought the album to the bookstores himself, where it was sold for 1 louis (20 francs ). Le Turf was an instant hit and was enthusiastically received in the press; his name had been known throughout the city ever since. Those who had not yet been caricatured by Sem could not really count themselves to Tout-Paris . In the following 14 years up to the First World War , he regularly brought out an album a year.

Sem never saw himself as a political cartoonist or even as a commentator on current affairs. Heads of state appear in his drawings insofar as they belonged to Tout-Paris , such as Ferdinand of Bulgaria or Edward VII of Great Britain. This milieu included business people like Alphonse de Rothschild and André Citroën , actors, writers and the great cocottes . Their stage was the Bois de Boulogne , the opera and the Maxim’s restaurant . In addition, there were other circles such as the Faubourgs Saint-Germain and Saint-Honoré as well as various literary salons, which Sem remained inaccessible.

Society writer of the Belle Epoque

In 1912 Paris was hit by a tango man to whom Sem dedicated his own album Tangoville sur Mer . Here the painter Boldini dances with his model Ava Astor .

In addition to his albums, Sems cartoons appeared in the Journal , with whose owner Henri Letellier he was friends. Occasionally he also published texts in the form of so-called "chronicles". Sem was a slow worker who often kept the editorial staff waiting. However, his caricatures of heads from theater, sports or politics appeared on the first page and were considered to be sales-promoting. In addition, his drawings and texts appeared in Le Gaulois and Figaro . However, the main source of income remained his albums, as well as drawing advertisements. The income was so good that he could afford a lavish lifestyle. He got his clothes in London, where he even had his shirts ironed.

With “Lady with a Greyhound”, shortly before the war, Sem sketched a simple fashion - measured by the standards of the time - that he had in mind as “real chic”.

In 1904 Sem was admitted to the Legion of Honor , an honor that was rarely given to artists and was absolutely unusual after only four years in the capital (in 1923 he was promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor). In 1909, together with the draftsman Auguste Roubille , he organized an exhibition on the Grande Semaine , that is, on the défilé of elegant carriages, horses and the first automobiles in the Bois de Boulogne on the occasion of the horse races. To this end, Roubille drew the horses in the form of a diorama , while Sem the people depicted.

With his caricatures, Sem also became an influential fashion critic. He castigated the women's fashion of his time, which dressed women in such cumbersome garments that they had to rely on the help of their companions to move about, as a “museum of errors”. In 1913 he brought out the album Le Vrai et le Faux Chic with short texts and illustrations. Sem was also an enthusiastic devotee of the simple, independent woman wearable fashions that Coco Chanel popularized during the war years.

Change of style in the First World War

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  “Before the attack” from the Croquis de guerre

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  “Prayer before the grave” from the Croquis de guerre

Sem in 1914

With the First World War , Sem put his art in the service of the fatherland. Although he was already over 50 years old, he dared to venture into the trenches as a war correspondent for the Journal - in contrast to many colleagues. A flood of letters to the editor testifies that his articles were considered particularly truthful by the soldiers at the front. Ten of them were summarized in the book Un pékin sur le front in 1917 , further articles can be found in La Ronde de Nuit from 1923. His style was characterized by hatred of Germans typical of the time, he never referred to Germans as allemands , but always only as boches . His drawings from the war, which he published in two Croquis-de-guerre albums, were in different shades of gray. In them, too, Shem only represented what he had seen himself. However, he also drew pompous posters to advertise war bonds .

Léonora Hughes and Maurice Mouvet dance

After the war, jazz and the fashion dances Shimmy and Charleston , which had come to France from the USA, captivated him in the années folles ( Roaring Twenties ) . Sem never married. In his early years he caricatured almost only men, now his caricatures are dominated by strong female characters. He particularly adored the writer Colette , the fashion designer Coco Chanel and the dancer Léonora Hughes . His closest friends included the painters Paul Helleu and Giovanni Boldini and his colleagues at the Journal Jean-Louis Forain and Abel Faivre .

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  Josephine Baker

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  The Aga Khan dances the Charleston

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  Cécile Sorel

In 1933, Sem suffered a heart attack, probably a heart attack . He recovered but died suddenly on November 26, 1934 in Paris in his reading chair with a book in hand.

estate

The works of Sem are kept by the Musée Carnavalet and the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris, the Musée du Périgord in Périgueux and the Musée Paul Dupuy in Toulouse. In the Château de Monbazillac a hall "Sem" is dedicated. The Sem Association looks after his memory.

Sem is best known for his 30 albums. There are 15 to 45 sheets each in a large format, around 30 × 60 cm. The edition was a few hundred copies, and certain albums have also been reprinted. None of the albums are dated. Sem systematically destroyed the preparatory sketches for his caricatures. Sem has also done a lot for advertising, be it for music halls , war bonds or fountain pens.

literature

Literature from Sem

Sem has summarized some of his journalistic work in two books:

• Un pékin on the front . Pierre Lafitte, 1917 (with 150 drawings by the author).
• La Ronde de Nuit . Arthème Fayard et Cie, 1923 (with 120 drawings by the author).
• At La Cathédrale de Reims . Plon, 1926, is the reprint of a chapter from La Ronde de Nuit in a bibliophile edition.

Occasionally, if rarely, Sem also illustrated friends' books.

Literature about Sem

• Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, ISBN 2-86577-144-X .

Web links

Commons : Georges Goursat  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Website dedicated to the memory of Sem (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 22.
2. ↑ taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 23.
3. ↑ Les Poissonnières taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 41.
4. ↑ taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 49.
5. ↑ La femme au lévrier taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 97.
6. ↑ Avant l'assaut taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 103.
7. ^ Prière sur une tombe taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 105.
8. ↑ taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 147.
9. ↑ taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 127.
10. ↑ taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 127.
11. ↑ taken from: Madeleine Bonnelle and Marie-José Meneret: Sem . Pierre Fanlac, Périgueux 1979, p. 128.